Article: A revision of the fossil Canidae (Mammalia) of north-western Africa

The fossil record of the Canidae in North-western Africa begins near the Miocene–Pliocene boundary with a form close to Nyctereutes, a genus best known in the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam. This site yields two other canids. Vulpes hassani sp. nov. is a small fox, probably ancestral to the modern V. rueppelli, recorded from the Middle Pleistocene onwards. Lupulella paralius sp. nov. is a primitive jackal that probably belongs to the clade of modern African jackals. In the middle Pleistocene, the most common canid is Lupulella mohibi sp. nov., remarkable by its Nyctereutes-like dentition and primitive skull-features. These are all endemic forms, but V. vulpes and C. aureus, of northern origin, appear in the course of the middle Pleistocene. Lycaon has a sparse record in the middle and late Pleistocene.